Security is no longer just a hot topic among security professionals. It’s crossed the boundaries into mainstream media and political debates. You can’t watch the news or read a newspaper or magazine without hearing about cyber threats, personal information breaches or risk management. But that doesn’t mean that company executives have opened their wallets to each and every security project their security staff submits – if only it were that easy.
It is five years since the publication of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book The Black Swan. In the book, Taleb introduces the concept of Black Swan events, which he characterizes as events that are 1) rare; 2) extremely impactful and 3) often endowed by people – after the fact – with elements of predictability. Taleb argued that uncertainty cannot be tamed, in his words, and that it is foolish to attempt to tame it.
The issue of security in Mexico is given extensive attention, much of it focused on the high levels of violence stemming from the fight between the Mexican government and organized crime. This conflict, widely referred to as a “drug war” routinely features in the news media with explosive headlines accompanying graphic images of dead and wounded as well as increasingly armed security forces.
Research conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) shows that the typical organization loses an estimated 5 percent of its revenues to fraud each year, and more than 85 percent of all occupational fraud cases involve employee theft.
Those who work in security are well aware that violence in the workplace is one of those risks that can pose a threat to the safety of employees or visitors to their facility. After all, no industry is immune from this hazard. Some, may however, be less familiar with how the issue impacts industries outside their own.
The National Capital Security Partners' Forum (NCSPF) provides quality speakers and educational programming to a wider audience of security professionals and their collaborative partners in the intelligence and defense.
Don’t be afraid. This is all about habits. And it is a twin spin from an MIT lab and a self-help professor at Utah State University, a seemingly deadly combination, but which may hold the key to how to sell security to the boss and employees, how to balance values and principals professionally and personally as well as how to sell Febreze at Walmart, if you want.
Just today, a stranger came to my door claiming he was here to unclog a bathroom drain. I let him into my house without verifying his identity, and not only did he repair the drain, he also took off his shoes so he wouldn’t track mud on my floors. When he was done, I gave him a piece of paper that asked my bank to give him some money. He accepted it without a second glance.
If security continues to mature as a business function, senior management will likely ask for a set of metrics to measure performance. Security leaders should prepare meaningful metrics that inform management and improve security effectiveness.
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